When the Heroes Cry
by Poke-Melody
Summary: A curse was revived in Askr, causing the Order of Heroes to act strangely. Nobody can trust each other and paranoia is growing. Can the Order get over this before they destroy each other? Don't need to know anything about Higurashi to read this fic.
1. Chapter 1

Princess Veronica was fuming, her plan to get the Summoner alone and kill them completely backfired, the Kingdom of Askr have joined forces with the Kingdom of Nifl, and that annoying little fire king keeps looking down on her. She only joined forces with that oversized fireball just so can have a bit more of an advantage on Askr.

She left her army at the front of the castle and made straight for the royal library. Maybe there was something in the ancient texts that could help her. There was a book sticking out of one of the lower shelves that caught her attention. She'd never seen this one before and she found it rather odd that it was sticking out like it was. It wasn't there earlier and with the amount of dust that covered the book, it looked like it hadn't been touched in at least months. But she decided to flip through it anyway. Looking at the book, she figured it was a spell book, there was a page bookmarked and she opened up to that page. Her eyes widened once she read the single spell on that page. She couldn't help but smile, this could be the advantage she was looking for.

"Prince Xander, we are heading out!" Princess Veronica said as she walked toward the castle doors.

"Princess, where are we going?" the prince asked as he trailed next to her.

"I found the perfect spell that could very well lead us to victory."

"Very well, I shall go fetch my horse," Prince Xander moved ahead of her towards the stables.

"Just you wait, Heroes. Once this spell is cast, I won't even need to fight you, you'll be doing it for me."

To say that the Askr army was surprised to see only Princess Veronica and Prince Xander was an understatement. Veronica would never confront them without without more than a few more Heroes than just Xander, but she looked very sure of herself.

"Everybody be careful, we don't know what she's hiding up her sleeve," Anna warned everyone.

"Don't worry, Heroes. This will only take up a moment of your time, then you can go back to your castle." Veronica smirked.

"What do you want, Princess Veronica?" Alfonse asked, hand already on the hilt of his sword.

"All I have to say is this-" and Veronica opened the book to the bookmarked page and began to recite the spell in a language the Heroes did not recognize. As Veronica kept speaking, a light came from the book and blinded the Heroes.

When the Heroes regained their sight, both Veronica and Xander where gone. They looked at each other with confusion.

They did as much searching around the area and of themselves, but the couldn't find anything that may have been affected by the spell.

"She may have done this to psych us out, keep an eye out for anything suspicious, but I don't think there's anything to be worried about," Anna said to her allies.

However, Kiran couldn't shake the feeling that there was something wrong and was on edge the entire way back to the castle.


	2. Chapter 2

Kiran did not get any sleep that night. They were so on edge to the point that they couldn't even sit still.

Alfonse, Sharena, Anna, and Fjorm where already eating breakfast by the time Kiran came out of their room.

"Wow, Kiran. Are you okay? You look exhausted," Sharena commented.

"Yeah," Kiran rubbed at their face "I guess I didn't get enough sleep last night."

Kiran didn't want to worry their friends with their growing paranoia of Veronica's latest scheme. Commander Anna said it was probably nothing, so that's what they were going to believe. But still, that didn't change the possible scenarios running through their head on what that spell actually was doing to them. It could have been some spell to make their army really sick, or maybe make them lose their memory at some random point, or something much worse.

Maybe Kiran shouldn't have read all of those horror novels from their world. They were always a bit on the paranoid side, and this was not making things any better. The logical part of Kiran's brain was telling them that Veronica was just trying to get into their heads and that was it. Well... it's working.

Kiran trudged over to their seat next to Fjorm and dug in. They were so tired that they didn't even know what they were eating either. Today was going to be a long day.

Kiran sat with Robin trying to work on a strategy for a possible future battle, while everyone else was training.

Kiran really tried to shake the thoughts of Veronica and her spell out of their head but they just couldn't. It was driving them up the wall. It really could've been anything and nobody here even cared.

"Kiran... Kiran... Kiran!"

Kiran was dragged out of their thoughts by Robin who was snapping his finger in front of their face, trying to grab their attention.

"Huh? O-Oh! Sorry Robin, I guess I kinda just spaced out for a bit there," Kiran chuckled.

"Is everything alright, Kiran? You've been acting kind of off today, are you feeling ill?" he asked.

"N-No, nothing like that. It's just that... what happened yesterday is kind of been bothering me."

"Yesterday? What happened yesterday that has you so worked up?"

Kiran looked at Robin's face to see that he didn't understand what they were talking about.

"You were there, Robin! When Veronica did that really weird spell thing-y. Remember? The light blinded us for a good minute and she up and disappeared!"

Robin gave Kiran an unreadable look.

"Kiran, we never saw Princess Veronica yesterday. We never even had a battle yesterday, we did nothing but patrol all day."

"You don't remember battling yesterday?!" Kiran cried. "Did you hit your head or something, Robin? Veronica is up to something and she did something to us with that spell!"

Robin held his hands out in front of him in a non-threatening gesture, a bit startled by Kiran raising their voice like they were. This even grabbed Alfonse's attention who was training not too far from the pair of tacticians.

"Kiran, is everything alright?" Alfonse asked walking over.

"Well you see-" Robin was cut off by Kiran raising their voice a bit more.

"No, everything isn't alright! Why is everyone pretending that was Veronica did yesterday didn't even happen?"

Alfonse looked just as confused as Robin.

"Kiran, what're you talking about, Princess Veronica didn't do anything yesterday. We didn't even see her at all. We just had patrol's yesterday," Alfonse repeated the same thing as Robin.

"Are you feeling well, Kiran?" Robin asked, putting a hand on their shoulder. "It is pretty hot today, maybe the heat is getting to you. I can take you to your room if you're feeling too warm out here."

"So you guys really don't remember what happened yesterday?"

Alfonse and Robin exchanged a look.

"Kiran," Alfonse began "I was with you all day yesterday, and not even once did we see Princess Veronica or anyone from her kingdom. I think you should go inside and rest. Sharena mentioned you weren't looking too well this morning."

"Kiran, why not you and I go inside to do some reading? The library is pretty cool, I'm sure it will help you. I'm feeling a bit warm myself so why don't we just go inside and take a bit of a break for a few hours," Robin suggested.

"That's a good idea, you two must be sweating underneath those heavy cloaks. You both are dismissed for today." Alfonse commanded as he walked away to resume training.

Before Kiran could even protest, they were led away by Robin toward the castle's library.

Robin and Kiran sat in the library reading random books they found. Well, it was more Robin doing the reading, Kiran just kind of sat there glaring at the books. Their mind elsewhere.

At one point, Robin stood up to put one book he was reading away and to grab another one. Kiran continued to glare daggers at the book in their hand, not even noticing that Robin stood up. Until a call of their name caught their attention.

"Kiran, did Alphonse ever mention to you how recent these books are?" he asked.

"Hmm, he said that the newest one in here is dated from about ten years ago, why?"

Robin sat back down at the table they were stationed at, holding a worn red journal.

"This book is dated from last year..." he trailed off squinting at the book, trying to read the text on the cover.

Kiran scooted their chair over closer to Robin's to read what he was trying to read. There was a date on the top left corner, it was dated year X198, Alfonse told Kiran that this year was X199.

"That's odd, Alfonse told me that any texts written between ten years ago and now is in a sealed off library." Kiran said.

"It seems odd that they would put something so recent in here by mistake," said Robin as he brushed some of the dirt and dust off of the cover.

Once he got a good portion of the dirt off, they could see what it was titled. The cover read _The Journal of Warren Prenston. _

"I don't think I've met anybody here by that name." Robin said.

"Me either."

Robin opened the journal to the first page, the handwriting on the page was not the same as on the cover. The handwriting on the cover was very neat and written with care, but what was written on this page looked like it was written down in a hurry. Ink was smudged, and part of the page was wrinkled, as if whoever wrote this entry was gripping the book really hard.

The text read:

_To whoever finds this journal, my name is Warren Prenston and my uncle is the king of this country. I can't really explain much, but hopefully my writings in this journal will help you find the truth to what has been going on in this castle. The royal family are not what they seem, although I'm a part of that family, I don't want to include myself in that family. They are a bunch of filthy liars and you cannot trust them. My aunt especially, I don't know why, but there's something very off about her._

_I apologize, I'm getting a bit off topic aren't I? What I want to say before you look further into this journal is that if you find this book, there is a huge chance that I am dead. I've taken every possible measure to keep that from happening. From having the servants check my food for poison, to sleeping with a dagger underneath my pillow. But again, if you have found this, then that means those where still not enough. Please, don't make the same mistake I did. Trust no one. Don't even trust the castle staff, they could be conspiring with the queen._

_The point of this journal is so hopefully whoever finds this believes me and continues my work. I put great lengths to hide this so none of my family or the staff finds this. The fact that you have found this means it could be a Hero or even the Legendary Summoner my cousin Alfonse was searching for. Please, don't show this to him or Sharena, they cannot know of this. It's quite possible that they are involved._

_The contents of this journal contains my research of this family. Of my family. I have been led to believe that my family is plotting something very sinister and whatever they are doing could very well destroy this kingdom. To the new owner of this journal, I have failed to save my Kingdom, now it is up to you._


	3. Chapter 3

p id="docs-internal-guid-b1da4099-7fff-87c3-62d0-29fde3ffeabe" dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Kiran was able to get a bit of sleep that night, but it took a lot of effort to just fall asleep. That journal they and Robin found was still on their mind. What did it mean the royal family was plotting something? Where Alfonse and Sharena really involved?/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Robin suggested to not think too much about it for the time being, but Kiran's paranoia had doubled since they found that journal./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Kiran trudged outside of their room and into the dining hall. Maybe getting food in their system would help them focus better and think more clearly./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"When they got there everyone seemed awkwardly quiet. Alfonse and Sharena were slowly picking at the food. Fjorm greeted Kiran when they took their seat next to Alfonse. It seemed that she didn't really know what put Alfonse and Sharena in this weird mood, but it looked as if she was trying to make up for the awkward silence. /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Good morning, Fjorm." Kiran smiled, then turned to Alfonse and Sharena "Good morning, you two." /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Sharena suddenly looked up from her plate, startled, then gave an awkward smile. "O-oh, good morning, Kiran."/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Is everything alright?" Fjorm questioned, "You too seem quite off today."/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Alfonse suddenly stood up out of his chair and walked out of the room without saying anything./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Is Alfonse okay?" Kiran asked./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""I..." Sharena trailed off, "I don't know, honestly. I probably shouldn't be telling you this but... you see, this is the anniversary of our cousin's death. It's actually the first anniversary. He and Alfonse never got along quite well and his death was very sudden. I guess Alfonse is upset because they had a huge fight the day before he died."/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Oh my," Fjorm commented. "I'm sorry to hear that."/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"But Kiran couldn't help but put the fork they were using down. Suddenly no longer hungry. The events of yesterday that they tried and was almost able to forget about swam back. The author of that journal said he was the cousin of Alfonse and Sharena. It was also dated last year, they year this supposed cousin died./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""M-May I ask how this cousin died, Sharena? If it's not too much." Kiran said, their voice quivering./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Oh, I don't mind you asking, but..." Sharena trailed off. "From what my mother told me, he was beaten with a blunt object. Alfonse was the one who found him. He would only talk to our mother, I couldn't talk to him at all for the next few days. He also avoided our aunt and uncle like the plague. It was scary to see him like that."/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""I-I'm sorry, I shouldn't asked." Kiran apologized./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""No, it's fine. I really don't mind talking about it, I wasn't too close with him either, but I never got into fights with him like Alfonse did-"/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Sharena was cut off by a high-pitch scream./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Kiran, Fjorm, and Sharena instantly jumped to their feet and ran out the room towards the direction of the scream./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Someone come, quick!" the person yelled, voice cracking on the 'quick'./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""That sounded like Felicia." Fjorm said running behind Kiran./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"The scream led them to one of the supply rooms. When the first ran in, they noticed Felicia was sitting, backing away from a corner of the room that was hidden behind some supplies. If Kiran remembered correctly, this was the food storage room./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Felicia, what's wrong?" Sharena cried, running over./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Felicia pointed a shaking finger to the part of the room she was backing away from./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Kiran, Sharena, and Fjorm cautiously walked over to where Felicia was sitting. The sight alone was enough to make Kiran feel light headed. There was a body, from the outfit, it was mostly likely a servant; their head was caved in. It was obvious that they were hit on the head with something./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""I-I-I-I just came in to find some tea for Lady Corrin and this servant was lying there, dead!" Felicia cried./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Fjorm helped her up and guided her out the door. While Sharena slowly walked towards the body. She then turned to Kiran./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Kiran, go find Alfonse. He needs to know of this." the princess ordered./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""R-Right..."/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Kiran ran out, eager to get away from the scene before them. They rushed down the hallway trying to figure out where Alfonse had gone too./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Kiran!" called a voice./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Kiran turned around to see Robin running towards them./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Kiran, what's happened? Felicia's panicking out in the kitchen."/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Kiran explained all that they knew to Robin. Robin could only gape, he was at a loss for words./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Have you seen Alfonse anywhere? Sharena asked me to go get him."/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Uh, yeah I did. I think he was training when I saw him. I think he cut himself or something though 'cause there was a bit of blood on him so he might be a bit agitated when you find him."/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""O-oh, okay. Thank you, Robin." Kiran stuttered before running off again./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Kiran's mind was in a haze. The last few days have just been too much. /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"They turned the corner and had almost run into Alfonse./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""K-Kiran? What's wrong, you look as if you've seen a ghost..."/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"It was at this moment, Kiran was at a loss for words. They looked up to meet Alfonse's eyes and they couldn't help but step back a bit. Alfonse didn't look right, his eyes had a glazed look to them and it sent a shiver down Kiran's spine. They didn't like this look one bit. Despite that, Kiran forced themselves to tell Alfonse what had happened./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""B-body... Servant... D-D-Dead..." was all Kiran could stutter out, unable to look away from the odd look in Alfonse's eyes./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""What?! You guys found a dead body?!" Alfonse asked, sounding surprised, but Kiran thought the surprised tone in his voice sounded fake./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Kiran only nodded./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Where?"/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""F-Food storage room."/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Alright, I'll go check it out." was all Alfonse said before walking off./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Kiran turned to face him as he walked the food storage room, eyes widening when they caught something. There was a splatter of what looked like blood on his pure white cape. Kiran felt their knees go weak./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"No! No. Robin had mentioned that he was training and it looked like he had hurt himself. That must be where the blood was coming from. But then again... why was Alfonse acting so calm about this? And that look in his eye was something else entirely./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Kiran was so lost in thought, they didn't realized that they had actually followed Alfonse towards the storage room until they accidentally bumped into someone./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Kiran, are you alright?" asked Robin./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Kiran snapped out of their haze and looked around. There was a small crowd of Heroes who were standing outside the storage room./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Y-Yeah... just in shock I think..." Kiran muttered./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""You really don't look so good..." Robin said. "How about I take you to your room so you can rest? I'm sure this is something that you've never experienced, I'm sure Prince Alfonse and Princess Sharena will understand."/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Yeah... maybe..." was all Kiran said./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"As Robin guided Kiran towards their room, Kiran had thought of something./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""They died the same way..."/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""What was that, Kiran?" Robin asked./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Alfonse and Sharena's c-c-cousin... I was told that he died today, last year. He was beaten with something... and when I saw that servant... it looked like the same thing happened to them."/span/p 


	4. Chapter 4

Robin was speechless. Apparently, what happened to Warren was vaguely explained to Kiran and it sounded awfully familiar to what had just happened to the servant.

"Kiran, I'm sure it was just a coincidence, what are you getting at?" Robin asked when they entered Kiran's room and took seats in there.

"Don't you think it's possible that Alfonse could have had something to do with Warren's death, Robin?" Kiran said, shakingly.

"Well..." Robin didn't know how to respond. It was a possibility, but they didn't have enough information yet. Robin took in a deep breath before continuing. "Kiran, there is a possibility that that's true, but I don't think we have enough information just yet."

"Yet?!" Kiran cried. "When will enough, be enough? How many more people need to die before you realize there's a connection?! Warren warned us himself in the journal to not trust Alfonse or Sharena. It's possible that the servant that's dead could've found out the truth and Alfonse took them out to keep them quiet..."

"Kiran, calm down. You're panicking." Robin said standing up and walking towards Kiran. He knelt down next to them and made them look into his eyes.

"Kiran, I honestly believe you're starting to overthink this. I think we should just leave this to the castle staff. There's no reason for us to get involved."

"We're already involved!" Kiran said standing up, starting to pace while shaking their hands nervously. "It's only a matter of time until they find out about us knowing and kill us."

Robin stood up and grabbed Kiran by their arms, forcing them to stop their nervous pacing.

"Kiran, now you're just jumping to conclusions. You need to take a deep breath and relax. You haven't been sleeping well since you thought you saw Veronica, you need rest."

"I DID see Veronica! Why doesn't anyone believe me!" Kiran cried.

"Kiran, listen to me." Robin said, pulling Kiran to the sit on the ground with him. "You're exhausted, and you really need to rest. I think you should stay in your room today, have some time to yourself. I'll let Alfonse know that what happened earlier has put you into shock and you just need to calm down for the day. Can I ask you to stay in your room for the rest of the day if I go and find some information for you?"

"Y-You promise to do research on this as long as I stay in my room?" Kiran clarified.

"Yes, I will. Just please, try to calm down." Robin said before exiting the room.

Kiran pulled their knees to their chest and took deep breaths. What were they supposed to do about all this? Everything has been happening too fast. Too much has been happening just these past few days and Kiran just can't keep up with it.

'If only I never found that stupid journal.' Kiran sighed.

Ignorance is bliss as they say. If Kiran had never found the journal they wouldn't be feeling so upset. Maybe Kiran would feel better if they had some sort of weapon with them in their room. Surely the prince wouldn't do anything hostile towards his Summoner in public in front of other heroes. But being alone in their room? Both Alfonse and Sharena would have no problem getting in while Kiran was in here alone. No one there to help them when they really would need it. No Robin, no anybody.  
Kiran shook their head. They promised Robin they would try and relax.

'It'll be easier for me to relax if I have something to protect myself with.' Kiran reasoned with themself.

And with that thought, they decided to make their way to the armory. Kiran slowly opened their door and took a peek outside. There was a bit of a commotion down the hall, luckily the armory was on the other side of the hall.

Making sure Robin was nowhere in sight, Kiran slowly stepped out of their room and made way towards the armory. Luckily it wasn't too far so they didn't have to be out in the open for too long.

Finally arriving, Kiran slid through the doorway and closed the door behind them, leaving them alone in the dark room. Kiran looked over everything that was in there. It probably wasn't a good idea to grab something too dangerous. They didn't know how to use most of these weapons so maybe something that was good enough to keep someone back.

Kiran's eye's wandered around until they saw a club.

Perfect!

It wasn't too heavy so it was easy for Kiran to swing and carry around.

Kiran started to make their way out of the room, when they opened the door they had almost run into Sharena.

"Kiran, what're you doing here?" Sharena asked.

"Me? I-I-I was just taking inventory on our weapons is a-a-all." Kiran stuttered out. Sharena was awfully close to their face, and that look in her eyes wasn't right.

"Why do you have a club?" she asked looking over to Kiran's hand.

"O-Oh, w-w-well, I guess I've been a bit nervous about all that's happened and thought I'd sleep better if I had something to protect myself with..."

"Oh, that makes sense." Sharena's unreadable expression turned to a smile, moving out of the doorway to let Kiran through.  
Kiran started to make their way out of the armory when Sharena started to walk next to them.

"It's a real tragedy, for this to happen today..."

"Y-yeah..."

"I wonder who's next?"

Kiran stopped dead in their tracks. Why would Sharena ask that?

"Alfonse has been looking very agitated lately..." Sharena trailed off, rocking back and forth on her feet. Eyes glancing everywhere except Kiran.

"Wh-what do you mean?"

"I mean... she must have been killed because she knew something about Warren, right? I think it's a little suspicious that a servant would be killed today of all days, and in the same fashion that Warren was killed..." Sharena trailed off. She stopped her rocking and finally made eye contact with Kiran.  
She made her way towards Kiran and didn't stop until her face was a few inches away from Kiran's.

"You wouldn't happen to know anything about this, would you?"

It felt like Kiran's blood had turned to ice.

"N-no, of course not." Kiran laughed nervously. Had Sharena overheard them talking to Robin? Or maybe she knew about the journal?

"YOU'RE LYING!" Sharena yelled, causing Kiran to jump and take a few steps back.

"W-what are you talking about, Sharena?" Kiran asked, pulling the club to their chest.

"You've been on edge since this morning, before we even found out about the murder." Sharena said taking steps towards Kiran again. Kiran would have backed up, but it felt like their legs were frozen to the ground.

"I know you know something, Kiran... and when I find out..."

Sharena trailed off only to start laughing. What started as small amounts of giggles turned into full on howling in laughter. She was still in Kiran's face, too close. Kiran didn't know what to do, this wasn't like Sharena at all. The only thing they could do in their panic was to push Sharena to the ground and make a dash for their room. As they were entering their room, they heard one last statement from Sharena.

"You can't hide secrets from me, Kiran..."


End file.
